The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-01-20
A CHINESE BANQUET.
Queer Dishes That Came All the Way
from the FIowery Kingdom--wine
in Glnsu Cups ms Big ms Thin blcs.

In Glnsu Cups ms Big as Thimblcs.
Excise Commissioner Andrews has
for years been yearning with strong
and soulful yearn to eat Chinese din
ner, says The New York World. Wong
Chin Foo, the lecturer, journalist and
lawyer, of Mott street, wrung the Sc
crct from him three weeks ago, and
from that moment till last evening the
Oriental Delmonico at No. IA Mott
street has been preparing proper ban
quet for him After the preparations
had been going on few weeks, Wong
Chin Foo invited the commissioner, a
couple of his friends, an artist, and
some newspaper men to dine at the
Oriental Delmonico's. The party met
there at clock last evening and d.
rected looks of encouragement at one
another across round table. The res
taurant is two flights of stairs above
the street, and it takes a keen-eyed
climber TO find it. The most pronounced
characteristic of the place is its utter
democracy. The kitchen, the cashiers
department, and the banquet hall are
separated from one another only by thin
partitions cut by big windows and wide
doors. Without moving you can see
all that happens in it. It's the simplest
thing in the world for man eating his
dinner to keep his weather-eye on the
nimble-fingered, fat Tonquinese cashier
rafting up scores on bead-stringed
counting machine, and at the same time
watch the lean and slippered cook chop
ping tenderloin steaks to mincemeat
with cleavers that beat a merry tattoo.
When the eight gentlemen sat down
to dine last evening third junior cook
was piling dough on table under a
long, thick bamboo cylinder, one end
of which was fastened loosely to the
wall. When there was enough pastry
under the cylinder the olive-skinned
youth threw his right leg jauntily over
the part of the bamboo that protruded,
and then danced lightly on his left
foot. This acrobatic feat rolled the
dough out very thin indeed, and was a
fine, appetizing sight to see. When
the banqueters got tired of gazing at
the wonders of the kitchen, they exer-
cised their eyes by trying TO read verses
of Chinese poetry that were hand
painted on long red banners that !hung
on the wall. A red-haired cat and her
red-haired kitten gamboled pleasantly
about on the bare floor, casting an ex-
pectant eye now and then toward the
table.
At 1880 o'clock the whole banquet
was spread on the round table. 1t
covered the surface completely, so that
even the deft Chinese waiter could not
have added the tiniest saucer to the ar
ray of queen-shaped Chinese dishes,
loaded with fragments of birds and
fish and fruits. Wong Chin Foo and
his seven guests armed themselves with
long, shiny ivory chopsticks, and got
ready to attack the feast. Plain Ameri-
can knives and forks lay on table
near by, but everybody scorned them
with stern and flinty chances. Wong
Chin Foo cut up some cakes that look
ed very like Yankee mullins strewn
with white hempseed They were not
mullins, though, but delicate Chinese
pies, filed with citron, ginger, seeds, and
Jelly, sweet to the taste and with a
weird odor lowering over them. They
were made in Canton three years ago.
After them came thin slices OF candied
ctron, dcliciously favored with ginger
and shining with sugar crystals. The
party looked suspiciously for awhile at
dishes OF nuts that looked like very
dry, big acorns. They were found full
of delicious, jelly-like meat and big
kernel like prune pits. Then the chop
sticks were plunged into a dark-color-
ed dish that the Chinese call ''tchou
mien." II consists of tender bits Of
spring chicken fried in lard for forty
eight hours until the bone is as tender
ms the meat. With it are splinters of
young duck and bits of celery, onions,
mushrooms bamboo shoots, and ginger.
There were dishes. too, of white chicken
breast and dark duck meat roasted to-
gether, and the proper thing to cat
them with was the Chinese cucumber,
commonly known as ''cha qua" II
you poured over this few drops of